The Apple TV received a software update on Wednesday to version 4.2, adding expected support for AirPlay on third-party iOS 4.3 applications, as well as a few surprise additions, including live streaming games for NBA League Pass and MLB.TV subscribers.

The Apple TV update can be applied on the latest-generation set top box, which retails for $99. New features of the update, as highlighted by Apple, include:
MLB.TV: Watch live and on-demand Major League Baseball games, access stats, scores and standings.
NBA: See scores and more, plus League Pass Broadband subscribers get live and archived games.
AirPlay for apps: Use AirPlay to wirelessly stream video from apps and Safari on your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
Netflix Dolby Digital 5.1: Enjoy Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound when watching Netflix movies and TV shows
New slideshow themes: View photos with the new Scrapbook, Photo Mobile, and Holiday Mobile slideshow themes.
Improved on-screen keyboard: Search and enter names and passwords more easily with the redesigned on-screen keyboard.
Once the Apple TV is updated, MLB.TV and NBA content can be accessed through the "Internet" section of the device's main menu. From there, basic information like scores and standings can be accessed, while subscribers can enter their account information to stream live games that are available.

The update also addresses a number of security issues on the Apple TV related to vulnerabilities in FreeType, exploits that can run when viewing a malicious TIFF file, and the ability for an attacker to reset an Apple TV when connected to the same Wi-Fi network.

The update arrived on Wednesday alongside the release of iOS 4.3 for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. That update allows Apple's mobile devices to wirelessly stream content from third-party applications to the set top box.

The updates are nice but there is no mention of fixing the problem with Netflix streaming stopping with long delays. This is the only feature of Apple TV I cannot use... And don't say it is my personal network (as many posts have claimed) as there is a Wii sitting right next to it connected to the same network and it works fine.

The updates are nice but there is no mention of fixing the problem with Netflix streaming stopping with long delays. This is the only feature of Apple TV I cannot use... And don't say it is my personal network (as many posts have claimed) as there is a Wii sitting right next to it connected to the same network and it works fine.

I love my Apple TV but there are a couple of "fixes" that would be nice:

1) obviously more content, but that is an ongoing issue, and I'm sure there are biz dev people responsible for this

2) AirPlay streaming: I'll be curious to see if the actual performance is improved. I can click on a photo on my iPhone and the photo will appear on the Apple TV, but it will freeze there making moving to the next photo virtually impossible. I have pretty fast Internet and use Apple's own router so you would think this would be more consistent. The addition of more AirPlay functionality through the iOS 4.3 update is one of the things I am most excited about

I love my Apple TV but there are a couple of "fixes" that would be nice:

1) obviously more content, but that is an ongoing issue, and I'm sure there are biz dev people responsible for this

2) AirPlay streaming: I'll be curious to see if the actual performance is improved. I can click on a photo on my iPhone and the photo will appear on the Apple TV, but it will freeze there making moving to the next photo virtually impossible. I have pretty fast Internet and use Apple's own router so you would think this would be more consistent. The addition of more AirPlay functionality through the iOS 4.3 update is one of the things I am most excited about

I assume the 5.1 bitstream will be available out of the optical jack and not just through HDMI? I also assume it's Dolby Digital (AC-3) and not the newer Dolby Digital Plus that Netflix began offering last year with 7.1 support?

I could not take the buffering with Netflix, so now I just order the dvds. I was wondering if it was my cable company intentionally disrupting my bandwidth for that domain or whether it was Netflix. On normal downloading to my iMac I get around 2+ megs a second. Yeah, I know, pretty slow, but it should be fast enough, don't you think?

I could not take the buffering with Netflix, so now I just order the dvds. I was wondering if it was my cable company intentionally disrupting my bandwidth for that domain or whether it was Netflix. On normal downloading to my iMac I get around 2+ megs a second. Yeah, I know, pretty slow, but it should be fast enough, don't you think?

I had constant re-buffering when my speeds went anything below 5 on HD. Since my provider made some upgrades a few months ago and I now get a solid 10, I've not had any problems. Not sure if there's anything to this or not, but it seems like when the bandwidth limitation is on MY end, the status bar reappears with the spinning buffer icon. When the problem is on NETFLIX's end, the video just pauses without the status bar appearing.

I could not take the buffering with Netflix, so now I just order the dvds. I was wondering if it was my cable company intentionally disrupting my bandwidth for that domain or whether it was Netflix. On normal downloading to my iMac I get around 2+ megs a second. Yeah, I know, pretty slow, but it should be fast enough, don't you think?

I have 40 megs download and every now and then I get super slow streaming with Netflix- when it does happen, it's usually on the weekends.

The updates are nice but there is no mention of fixing the problem with Netflix streaming stopping with long delays. This is the only feature of Apple TV I cannot use... And don't say it is my personal network (as many posts have claimed) as there is a Wii sitting right next to it connected to the same network and it works fine.

Apple TV will never become the dominant force in the living room for several of reasons.

Firstly, where the iPod succeeded was in being able to play the primary file format of music pirates, MP3. Apple TV is not able to play the primary file format of video pirates, AVI (and it's variants). Sure, you can re-encode etc., but why bother when pretty much every other video device supports it?

Secondly many new mid-range TVs can take a USB stick, or SD card and play media files from that in an assortment of formats. Those TVs that are internet-enabled can either play streamed media or have video-on-demand services built-in. This is probably the reason why Gene Munster started to speculate about Apple launching a television as the writing was on the wall for devices like Apple TV.

Thirdly, it's still too expensive for what it isa limited video playback device with support for very few formats.

Apple TV could have taken serious market share when it launched had it been more open to playing an assortment of formats, but Apple decided to keep it in their walled garden. Anyone buying Apple TV now is likely to be doing so over some misplaced sense of loyalty and has not looked at the multitude of alternatives.

did they fix the bit about taking 2 hours to download an hour and a half long movie yet?

I like my ATV, and would rent a ton of movies if they started 10 min from the time I rented them, instead of 2 hrs later.

Are you using the Google DNS, or OpenDNS servers? If so, try your ISP's DNS servers. A number of people using the Google DNS and OpenDNS servers reporting having this issue, and that changing back to their ISP's servers resolved it.

Sounds impossible I know, but it has something to do with sites that have multiple distribution points around the country, and sending out the content differently depending on where you were located. Using Google DNS or OpenDNS masked your location, and caused issues with this type of streaming...

Are you using the Google DNS, or OpenDNS servers? If so, try your ISP's DNS servers. A number of people using the Google DNS and OpenDNS servers reporting having this issue, and that changing back to their ISP's servers resolved it.

Sounds impossible I know, but it has something to do with sites that have multiple distribution points around the country, and sending out the content differently depending on where you were located. Using Google DNS or OpenDNS masked your location, and caused issues with this type of streaming...

Or something like that...

That seems like forcing us to choose the lesser of two evils. One choosing peppy downloads while letting your ISP perform DNS hijacking (something I cannot stand). Or preventing the DNS hijacking and dealing with slow streaming

Exactly! WTF is it with putting Rounders on AppleTV? Only in America can they get so excited about the girls alternative to cricket!!!
Come on Apple add some proper features! I've bought a FoxsatHD box and the iPlayer feature alone is whipping the ass of AppleTV.

Apple TV will never become the dominant force in the living room for several of reasons.

Firstly, where the iPod succeeded was in being able to play the primary file format of music pirates, MP3. Apple TV is not able to play the primary file format of video pirates, AVI (and it's variants). Sure, you can re-encode etc., but why bother when pretty much every other video device supports it?

Secondly many new mid-range TVs can take a USB stick, or SD card and play media files from that in an assortment of formats. Those TVs that are internet-enabled can either play streamed media or have video-on-demand services built-in. This is probably the reason why Gene Munster started to speculate about Apple launching a television as the writing was on the wall for devices like Apple TV.

Thirdly, it's still too expensive for what it isa limited video playback device with support for very few formats.

Apple TV could have taken serious market share when it launched had it been more open to playing an assortment of formats, but Apple decided to keep it in their walled garden. Anyone buying Apple TV now is likely to be doing so over some misplaced sense of loyalty and has not looked at the multitude of alternatives.

It doesn't sound like the Apple TV is a good solution for you but for "mainstream USA" who uses iTunes for purchasing music and videos, it is a great solution. It also does Netflix, and now MLB.TV as well.

Anyone who is willing to put media on a flash drive and plug it into their TV is not the target market for the Apple TV. You buy an Apple TV to watch Netflix, play content from iTunes, and maybe rent a movie or two from time to time. You hook it up, turn it on and it works.

Contrary to most of us here in this forum, most people don't even know the difference between an MP3 and an MP4, and could care less about the "walled garden", and certainly don't have any "misplaced loyalty" to Apple.

That seems like forcing us to choose the lesser of two evils. One choosing peppy downloads while letting your ISP perform DNS hijacking (something I cannot stand). Or preventing the DNS hijacking and dealing with slow streaming

I agree, and I don't know that I believe that this would really be the problem, but several people seem to have posted that it resolved their issue.

I suppose you could use your ISP's DNS in your router, and put your Google/Open DNS in your Computer to override the DNS hijacking by the ISP?

when my 16mbps DSL (actually 20, but do I _ever_ see that? no......) is working, it's like 45 seconds to get the buffer primed for an HD movie.

And that is on my ATV1 (wired to my timecapsule connected to my DSL modem router).

Another plus for the local storage on the ATV1. I don't think the ATV2 buffers as well as the ATV1. With the ATV1 it would continue to buffer until it had the whole movie. I don't think the ATV2 does that.

It seems to me like the ATV1 just does a better job of streaming movies than the ATV2, and certainly better than streaming from Netflix.

That seems like forcing us to choose the lesser of two evils. One choosing peppy downloads while letting your ISP perform DNS hijacking (something I cannot stand). Or preventing the DNS hijacking and dealing with slow streaming

You could enable BIND on your Mac since it is likely to be running anyway with ATV.

IT annoys me that I can't watch local games live. I imagine all the billing is done through Apple, if I change my billing address via iTunes can I now watch local games live on the ATV 2? Or do I need to also get a proxy that's elsewhere?